Fissures to the fore, Chavan puts off Cabinet expansion by a day

Meanwhile, the CM faced a major embarrassment over the flip flop on Cabinet expansion.

The expansion of Maharashtra cabinet which was scheduled for Sunday, will now take place Monday morning. Two Congress leaders likely to be inducted are Amit Deshmukh and Abdul Sattar. Amit is the son of former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, while Sattar is a close associate of former CM Ashok Chavan.

Officials at Raj Bhavan confirmed to The Indian Express that CM Prithviraj Chavan late on Sunday met Governor K Sankaranarayanan to convey his decision to induct two Congress candidates.

Meanwhile, the CM faced a major embarrassment over the flip flop on Cabinet expansion. On Sunday morning the Chief Minister’s Office conveyed that there was a cabinet expansion at 4 pm. At 2 pm another CMO report said the cabinet expansion had been called off till further intimation.

The AICC and MPCC officials conveyed that the third name proposed by the CM was not acceptable to MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre and AICC general secretary incharge Mohan Prakash. The flip flop also showed Chavan on a back-foot as a section of senior party leaders worked to corner him by stalling the exercise for which he sought approval from high command Sonia Gandhi.

While Chavan said, “I had not communicated my decision of cabinet expansion to Raj Bhavan for today,” sources in Raj Bhavan and Congress pointed out that the CMO had issued the note in writing about the cabinet expansion. Cabinet ministers in the Congress also admitted they had been informed that the expansion will take place Sunday at 4 pm.

A senior AICC functionary told The Indian Express, “The cabinet expansion was to take place on Sunday at 4 pm. Chavan had decided to induct three new candidates. High on the list was the name of Amit Deshmukh and Abdul Sattar. However, the dispute related to third candidate where Chavan and AICC general secretary incharge of Maharashtra Mohan Prakash could not arrive at a consensus.”

A close aide of Chavan said, “The cabinet expansion is politically significant as it shows he is here to stay till assembly elections.”

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Sources disclosed to The Indian Express, “At the outset Chavan wanted a free hand which was not given by the AICC both for cabinet expansion and weeding out non-performing ministers from the government.” After three days of deliberations, it was decided that Chavan would adhere to just a small cabinet expansion by inducting three new names in the government. However, pulls and pressures within faction ridden Congress appear to have let down Chavan.